Soviet Scientist claims abominable snowman sighted Associated Press Associated Prove MOSCOW — A Soviet scientist said Wednesday she came within feet of the legendary abominable snowman during an eyeball to eye- ball encounter with the furry beast P. -.6 __ inthe snow covered forests of wes- ne tern Siberia. New In what Radio Moscow de- Aven scribed as one of the closest en- rl counters of its kind, the creature € fire ‘) reportedly stood and stared at her oan With red eyes, not making a sound, Le4,970R defore her pet dog chased the ae snowman, or yeti, deep into the THubStA] woods. ; The scientist, Maya Brikova, M AR +e told Radio Moscow she had spent { 25 years studying the yeti. Her 488 sighting occurred late last year t when Soviet media reported three yeti encounters. - To’ Brikova and two guides had 5 TMEeR stopped for the night in a forest cabin at an undisclosed site in wes- tern Siberia and were awakened by a sound of rolling logs. They said they rushed out to the porch and saw the creature they had waited so long to sec. “The day was breaking and we could see everything clearly. lsaw in front of me an animal about 2 meters (6 foct, 7-inches) tall, co- vered with fur some 6 to 7 seven centimeters (2.5 to 3 inches) long,” i { ‘ 4 yeti’ ; 8 Brikova said, “It was covered with so much fur, its lips looked like slits, The fur on its head and face was shorter than that of its body. The palms were red and bare. The creature studied us with great at- tention. Its eyes were red without any whites, and its ears didn’t stick out,” she said. Radio Moscow said there had been an estimated 5,000 eyewil- ness accounts of yeti sightings in the Soviet Union, mostly by peas- ants, drivers, shepherds and other rural people. The sightings had been reported in the Caucases region, the Altai district of south-central Siberia and the northeastern Yakutia area. Brikova said she had prepared herself for such an encounter, so that she could have “a very good look at this creature and examine it thoroughly. There was a distance ‘of 5 meters (16 feet) between us.” She said it had not been‘ diffi- cult to measure the hairy biped’s height because it was ‘standing, against a tree. Last month, the leader of Soviet scientific expedition, Igor Tatsl, told the official Tass news agency cone of the creatures had repeatedly tried to make friendly contact with his reasearch team in the Pamir mountains near the border with Afghanistan. — —= eally py